phi2100 2nd
Tom Piatak
19/11/2014
PHI2100
Essay Two
1. Mom and Pop sit down to read the daily newspaper. When they come across an article that peaks both their interest they begin to think into the matter and talk about it. This newspaper article is saying that children who were spanked are more likely to have health, behavioural, and emotional issues later in life when compared with children who were not spanked. They are able to come up with a few possible explanations however do not do any additional research into the study. They themselves believe they hold the trump card of experience in the matter and believe that from their time as parents which included raising four children that they are certain spankings do not affect children in that way because their own children experienced spanking and they saw first-hand that it would cause their kids to behave better. Their logic however shows serious flaws that can be explained. Mom and Pop have a pet belief from their personal experience on this issue and their argument shows signs of confirmation bias. On instance of this confirmation bias is an example of a biased search. Meaning that they only searched through their own memories for cases of spankings and came to the conclusion that their children behaved better after spankings and our productive members of society so the spankings could not have had negative effects. This however is biased because only using the example of four children who grew up in the same social setting is not representative of the general population and is therefore an invalid argument. Mom and Pop now understand that their argument did not include enough data to be used as a valid argument however are not ready to totally switch sides on the matter. They ask for a report on the argument made by the study and want to know about the validity of its findings. Upon reading the piece it becomes apparent that it too does not give everything needed to be a valid argument. It withholds the
19/11/2014
PHI2100
Essay Two
1. Mom and Pop sit down to read the daily newspaper. When they come across an article that peaks both their interest they begin to think into the matter and talk about it. This newspaper article is saying that children who were spanked are more likely to have health, behavioural, and emotional issues later in life when compared with children who were not spanked. They are able to come up with a few possible explanations however do not do any additional research into the study. They themselves believe they hold the trump card of experience in the matter and believe that from their time as parents which included raising four children that they are certain spankings do not affect children in that way because their own children experienced spanking and they saw first-hand that it would cause their kids to behave better. Their logic however shows serious flaws that can be explained. Mom and Pop have a pet belief from their personal experience on this issue and their argument shows signs of confirmation bias. On instance of this confirmation bias is an example of a biased search. Meaning that they only searched through their own memories for cases of spankings and came to the conclusion that their children behaved better after spankings and our productive members of society so the spankings could not have had negative effects. This however is biased because only using the example of four children who grew up in the same social setting is not representative of the general population and is therefore an invalid argument. Mom and Pop now understand that their argument did not include enough data to be used as a valid argument however are not ready to totally switch sides on the matter. They ask for a report on the argument made by the study and want to know about the validity of its findings. Upon reading the piece it becomes apparent that it too does not give everything needed to be a valid argument. It withholds the